Copyright 1994 CAUSE. From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 17, Number 3, Fall 1994. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact Julia Rudy at CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301 USA; 303-939-0308; e-mail: jrudy@CAUSE.colorado.edu FROM THE PRESIDENT INFORMATION RESOURCES: TECHNOLOGY, SERVICES, AND INFORMATION by Jane N. Ryland At its spring 1994 meeting, the CAUSE Board of Directors changed the CAUSE mission: "the association for managing and using information technology in higher education" became "the association for managing and using information resources in higher education." This change, spurred by Board members who were seeing their horizons broadened on their own campuses, has been under consideration by the CAUSE Board during the past several years. The Board felt strongly that * today's management professionals in this field must be concerned with far more than the technology; they must effectively manage people, services, and information in addition to the technology; * these multiple challenges are more accurately reflected conceptually in a broader umbrella, that of information resources; and * we must acknowledge that our day-to-day jobs are far more encompassing than just hardware and software if we are to effectively accomplish the goals of our institutions, as well as shape the future directions of our campuses. In follow-up discussions at their summer meeting in early August, Board members spent a good deal of time sharing the responses they had received from the recently announced new strategic directions and their own perspectives of the significance of the changes resulting from the continuing integration of information, technology, and services in higher education institutions. In the early days, most CAUSE members reported at least three levels below the president. Now, more than twenty years later, chief executives are beginning to look to IT as a means to address the difficult challenges facing our colleges and universities today, and many CAUSE members now participate at the highest levels of decision-making on our campuses. Information has become a key strategic resource of the institution in a far broader sense than data processing, or administrative computing, or administrative information systems--all phrases which have appeared in CAUSE mission statements over the years. As articles in this journal and other professional publications show, there is growing synergy among the many departments on campus that handle various aspects of the creation, maintenance, and dissemination of information through digital technologies: administrative computing, academic computing, telecommunications, instructional media, library services. Increasingly, our jobs on campus have focused on the ability to facilitate access to information itself throughout the campus, with little if any concern as to whether this is academic or administrative in nature. This is a much broader view of the function of electronic resources on campus, encompassing the _technology_ (or conduit), the _information_ content, and the _services_ which link both of those elements with users at all levels, through help desks, applications development, training, and a host of other functions. From this perspective, the information resource is surely one of the most precious assets of our colleges and universities. And that information resource includes everything from the growing global digital library of networked information, accessed by scholars--faculty, researchers, students--from their desktops, to our administrative databases and the content of our campus-wide information systems, increasingly indispensable to everyone in our own institutional communities. It is all this and more, and our concept of the breadth of this resource is growing almost on a daily basis. As the Board pointed out in different contexts throughout its recent meeting, we are trying to deal with hybrid environments, and our historical compartmentalized traditions don't work any longer. We are all engaged in trying to foresee the future and prepare for it, while managing current realities of existing hardware, software, staff, and budget infrastructures. This is as true for CAUSE as an association and the services we offer as it is for the CAUSE membership. As one purely practical example, our publications can no longer be offered only in print because of the demand for electronic access-- but neither can they be offered solely in digital formats, because the networking capabilities of our members run the gamut from no interdepartmental networks to the most sophisticated and powerful Internet access tools. Similarly, the content of our services can no longer focus only on administrative systems while our members are overseeing the plethora of functions that now fall into the purview of "information technology" or "digital resources" on campus. As an association, we find ourselves seeking an ever-wider variety of documents to include in our Information Resources Library and defining a wider range of questions important for the annual Institution Database survey. We recognize that we cannot be all things to all people. Library and academic technologies, policies, and services are clearly under the information resources umbrella, and we must keep our members aware of the increasingly integrated nature of the issues in those areas as well as in business and administrative functions--particularly as merging departments and cooperative projects on campus foster acculturation among formerly distinct entities. But this expansion for CAUSE represents an acknowledgment of reality: the "playing field" on which we operate has broadened. It does not mean that we will attempt to compete or duplicate functionality in areas currently being effectively served by others. That would be irresponsible and inappropriate. It does mean that we will more aggressively pursue opportunities for collaboration, and we will be much more sensitive to where our particular interests fit within the larger information resources environment, avoiding the compartmentalized traditions of the past. Many of our member institutions are going through major efforts to reengineer their processes and take into consideration the environmental changes around them. As an association, we have an obligation to do the same and to provide leadership in reflecting the recognition of these changes in our mission. As we respond to the wider pool of interests and needs of our members, CAUSE is developing new ways to gather, process, and disseminate information. The past few years have seen significant growth in collaborative publications, ad hoc task forces, special-interest workshops, regional conferences, electronic databases. We continue to evaluate our association priorities and focus. And we continue to explore ways to leverage alliances to share expertise with other organizations and to bring the best, most useful information we can find to CAUSE members. Increasingly, virtually every higher education association is discovering the subject of information resources to be of growing interest, in many cases, a pervasive theme. In this climate of limited resources, fiscal and other important decisions being made in every area, up to and including the campus boardroom, require a broad understanding of technology needs, costs, benefits, and priorities. To serve their campus constituencies, all associations are having to deal with the impact of the demands for information resources to appropriately accomplish their missions, goals, and objectives. Rather than be concerned about possible redundancy, we believe this is very positive, that it opens significant collaborative opportunities for CAUSE. With our broader conceptual view of information resources, we see new roles for CAUSE in working with other associations to help all elements of the campus community understand and appreciate the information resource needs to achieve institutional missions. These are exciting times. We are tempted to call them times of transition--except that "transition" implies passage to a new fixed state. There probably will be no fixed states in the years ahead. We need to learn to enjoy the adventure of change, to anticipate the next bend in the digital road, and to learn what we can from all our travel companions. As an association, we rely on the perspectives of our members to keep us on the right track. I invite you to send any questions or comments about the activities or the future of this organization to me directly at 303-939-0303, jryland@cause.colorado.edu.